


Pikmin 3 AU

by FangirlOfPower



Series: Sanders Sides Fics [24]
Category: Pikmin (Video Game), Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Aliens, Alternate Universe - Human, Alternate Universe - Space, Deceit is Character D, Don't copy to another site, Eating Disorders, Gen, Logan is Olimar, Logan won't appear in person for a LONG TIME, Patton is Louie, Patton is going to appear faster but he's not gonna be here for quite some time, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Remus is Alph, Roman and Remus have separate traumatic backstories, Roman is Captain Charlie, Thanks to Scruffy for the nice Pikmin remixes, Thanks to chuggaaconroy for the Let's Play, The Sides replace characters, Virgil is Brittany, and a big Screw You to K and the cursed yet beautiful moodboard, both have PTSD, let's give a hand to the Koppaite government for the amazing ability to cause PTSD, mentions of Jail, which was caused by
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-14
Updated: 2019-09-14
Packaged: 2020-10-18 13:23:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20639867
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FangirlOfPower/pseuds/FangirlOfPower
Summary: Four intrepid explorers by the name of Remus, Roman, D, and Virgil have gone on an expedition to find food for their starving planet. Of course, the universe isn't going to go easy on them. PNF-404 is a hostile place and it doesn't help that their cosmic drive key is missing.At least they have their little foliage friends to help them!





	Pikmin 3 AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There aren't any warnings I feel like I need to mention, just all around spoilers for Pikmin 3

**_Galactic date: 20XX_  
** At the far reaches of space lies a planet on the brink of ruin. The planet's name: Koppai. Due to a booming population and a basic lack of planning, Koppai’s inhabitants have all but exhausted their food supply. Their only hope is to find another planet with edible matter. Accordingly, they send unmanned scout vessels called “SPEROs” out into space. To their dismay, the search is proving fruitless. Just as they’re about to give up, the final vessel reports back with news of a miraculous discovery! They mobilize to investigate the planet, which they name PNF-404. Koppai’s last hope rests on four intrepid explorers. At last, the explorers’ 279,000 light-year voyage nears its end. But as they initiate the landing sequence, something goes horribly wrong.  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  
**Day 1: 8:44 AM  
** **Roman and D’s crash site  
**   
  
Roman groans. “What happened…?” He opens his eyes slightly. Yellow beings look into his eyes then scatter. He blinks then sits up, shivering. It’s so cold… “Where am I? The last thing I remember was… Oh, of course! This must be PNF-404!” He stands up, looking around. It’s very snowy. A tundra. Roman pulls out his KopPad and starts it. “Roman to ship! Roman to ship! Do you copy?” Nothing. “...Hello? Anyone?” Still nothing. Roman’s eyes widen. “No response… Where’s the ship? My FRIENDS?” He returns his Koppad to his side. “I escaped unharmed, but what about everyone else? They could be anywhere! I need to find them!” Roman pauses. “Oh, I hope they’re all still alive.” A groan and Roman spots a yellow light moving in the snow. “D?!”  
  
“Roman?!” The other explorer stands up. “Roman!” D runs over, yellow lights reflected on the snow. Roman’s red lights provide a deeper and more prevalent reflection. “Where are we? Where are the others?”  
  
“We’re on PNF-404, but where the others are is a mystery to me.” Roman hugs D. “I’m glad you’re safe.” D hugs him back. “Now come on, let’s find the others.”  
  
D rolls his shoulder. “It felt like the ship exploded. Do you think Remus missed something when he was checking on it last week?”  
  
Roman shakes his head, taking a hesitant step forward on the snow. His foot doesn’t break through. “Remus wouldn’t let something like that happen. It took him ages to get permission to come with us, he wouldn’t want to throw away his chance.” Roman falls silent.  
  
D doesn’t respond, knowing what Roman’s thinking about. “Remus will be okay,” D tells Roman. “I’m sure he’ll eat.”  
  
Both of them know D is lying.  
  
A little squeak causes them to look up. One of the yellow beings that were standing around Roman looks down at them. It tips its head, ears seeming far too big. “What’s that?” Roman wonders, stepping backwards.  
  
“I don’t know,” D says. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” Neither of them like the sound of that. If the xenozoologist doesn’t know what it is, there’s no telling what it could do to them. “Let’s go, don’t make eye contact.”  
  
The two walk away from the creature. Another one, exactly like the first, looks at them from behind, chirping at its friend. Roman and D walk away, not glancing back at the creatures. Another chirps to their right and one to their left. The two walk faster, not wishing to be bothered by the possibly violent creatures. The explorer have to stop when they see what’s blocking their path. “Are those… Mushrooms?” Roman says, confused. “They’re taller than we are!”  
  
“We can’t get passed them,” D says. “We’ll have to turn around.”  
  
They do so and are greeted by the sight of about fifteen of the yellow creatures on top of what looks like a giant tin can. The creatures look down at them, chirping at each other. They jump down to stand in front of the two. “Why are they getting closer?” Roman says. “Maybe our whistles will scare them off.”  
  
D’s eyes widen. “Roman, wai-”  
  
Roman blows his whistle loudly. The creatures run closer, surrounding Roman and D. Roman swears. “Maybe we can throw them?”  
  
“Roman-”  
  
Too late. Roman throws the creature far away from him, it landing on a nearby mushroom. They won’t leave. “Why won’t they stop hovering?” Roman shoves D backwards and the creatures don’t follow.  
  
“Roman, they don’t appear to be hostile.”  
  
Roman looks at D. “What?”  
  
“Look at them,” D says. “They’re not attacking you.” He gestures at the creatures. It’s true. They’re just standing there. “I think they’re peaceful.”  
  
“So if we whistle at them, they’ll follow us,” Roman says. “We can throw them. They’re not very heavy.”  
  
“Please don’t throw them.”  
  
Roman glances at the mushrooms. “Maybe they can help us get by the mushrooms? Do you think they can break them?”  
  
D sighs. “You’re not going to listen to me on this, are you?”  
  
“They can help us,” Roman says. “Maybe they can help us find Virgil and Remus.” Roman looks at the creatures, their yellow stems sticking up in the air, looking at the two intently. “It’s… It’s just like…” Roman swallows and trails off.  
  
D winces. “Hey, you’re not a ranger anymore. You’re not going to get hurt or hurt anyone. Everything’s going to be fine.”  
  
“Right,” Roman says quietly. “No one is going to be hurt.”  
  
“Remus and Virgil are going to be fine.” D turns and looks for the stragglers that were following them. He blows his whistle and they join the group. “Come on, let’s go.”  
  
Roman nods and leads the group away from the place the two explorers woke up, the group of creatures following behind them. Roman picks one of the creatures up, the yellow being looking up at him with wide eyes. Roman throws it at the mushroom. The being grabs it with its tiny arms and whacks it with the leaf on its head. Roman and D look at each other. In unison, the two throw some more of the creatures at the mushrooms. The mushrooms are soon flattened and the creatures look at Roman and D expectantly. D looks at them. “Now what?”  
  
Roman blows his whistle and the creatures gather around them. “Now we find our friends,” Roman says. He strides forward. D is surprised at first before realizing Roman probably did this with his fellow rangers when they were together. He is the captain after all… D follows behind Roman, shivering in the cold. Roman spies another group of the creatures and whistles at them. The yellow beings follow the two, leaves rustling against each other. An even bigger mushroom stands in their way and Roman doesn’t blink an eye when he throws the creatures at it. The beings flatten it. “Come on,” Roman says, walking through the icicle covered opening. “Let’s find our friends.” D follows closely.  
  
The two stand on a tree branch, a gigantic tree branch, covered in snow. D looks behind them to see the creatures. “These little guys sure are dedicated,” D says. He looks up at Roman. “They’re kinda like you.”  
  
Roman smiles slightly at that, but D can see the pain hidden in his eyes. “Yeah,” Roman says. “Like me.” He turns away from D. “Come on.” He walks onward, the pack of yellow beings right behind him. D sighs, following him.  
  
The cave they enter is dark, with some glowing blue mushrooms spread across the floor. There are some other beings, as big as a car, standing in the room. “Roman,” D hisses. “Those look dangerous.”  
  
The monsters notice them, black hairs on their heads standing up. One of them crouches down. “Look out!” Roman tackles D as the creature jumps. The two land next to some dimly lit mushrooms. The stalks grow tall, brightening. The creatures shriek. “The light hurts them!” Roman points and whistles, the pack of yellow beings converging on the black ones. The black beings don’t last long. “Good, we got them.”  
  
A growl behind them. D turns around. His eyes widen. “Roman…”  
  
The yellow beings shriek and run back through the opening. “What’s wrong?” Roman calls out to them. He blows his whistle. Nothing.  
  
“Roman!”  
  
“D, why won’t they come back?”  
  
“Roma--!!!” D’s scream gets cut off.  
  
Roman whirls around, the lights of the mushrooms growing faint. The red lights on Roman’s suit glow eerily in the darkness. D’s yellow lights are nowhere to be seen. “D?” Another growl. Roman stiffens, looking behind him. His own cry of surprise gets cut short.  
  
And the room is left to dim to darkness.  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  
**Day 1: 8:46 AM  
** **Remus’s crash site  
**   
  
Remus opens his eyes slightly, squinting at the sunlight. The Drake sputters overhead and crashes into something. What did it crash into? Remus can’t focus well enough to know. His eyes shut again, thinking. “It’s a miracle,” he mutters to himself. “I’m alive.” He’s also floating in water. He blinks and stands up, feet coming in contact with muddy ground. He looks around. “Okay,” he says to himself. “Let’s see… What happened…” His eyes widen and he snaps. “Right! As we were going to land, something wrong happened and we had to do an emergency escape! We must have gotten separated in the chaos!” Remus puts a hand to his chest. “I guess that means it’s up to me, Remus King, the engineer, to find the Drake and my friends.”  
  
There’s no response because there’s no one around.  
  
Remus splashes a little in the water before walking out. As he walks down a path, he spies a red figure. The figure jumps to its feet and runs away from Remus. “What was that?” Remus says. He hesitantly takes a step forward before running. “Roman?!” It’s probably not Roman, but the red can give Remus hope. He stops to see three of the red figures. They stare at him before crowding underneath a red bulb. “They’re trying to get that down!” Remus is no Roman, he’s never had to lead anyone into a fight. But he can try. He blows his whistle loudly, trying to get their attention. The three run over to him. Remus beams. “Aw, you’re so friendly!” Remus tries to jump up to the bulb. He can’t reach it. “Hmm…” He looks at the three red beings and gets an idea. He picks one up and throws it. It grabs where the bulb thing is tangled in vines and starts hitting at it. Remus looks at the other two and throws them. They weigh down the bulb and the branch snaps, sending the three red figures and the bulb to the ground. “Nice!” Remus looks at the bulb. “Perhaps it’s a fruit?” It would be nice to find fruit so early on.  
  
It seems as if the universe has elected to ignore that proposition, as the bulb starts to glow. The three beings cheer at each other. The red bulb sends yellow stalks of sorts to connect to the ground.  
  
Remus pouts. “It seems like it’s not edible at all.” He glances at the three beings. They stare up at him. He takes a step back and they follow. “Hey! Why are you following me?!” He trips and glimpses something across a ledge. “Hey! My KopPad!” He stands up. “Once I get that, I can find my friends!” He runs over, only to realize that he can’t climb that high and he can’t make the jump. “Oh, darn.” He sits down at the end of what looks like a former bridge. The three beings look at Remus expectantly. “Hey, buzz off!” Remus throws them away from him, crossing his arms. He tips his head when he realizes the three are picking up pieces of something. “What are they doing?” He stands up and watches them take the pieces over to the former bridge. “They’re… Helping.”  
  
Remus looks over to see another figure sitting behind the pieces of the bridge. “Hey there little guy,” Remus says softly. “Wanna join us?” He whistles and the being walks over and begins to help the other three. Remus smiles.  
  
The four make fast work, placing the last piece down and rushing back over to where the pile of pieces once was. Remus whistles to them and walks across the bridge, humming. He picks up his KopPad, turning it on. “Let’s see…” Remus grins. “It still works! I mean, of course it does. Koppai is very good at making technology that lasts.” Remus’s half plant half animal friends don’t argue, as they don’t really know what he’s talking about.  
  
Remus looks back at them, the four standing in a single file line. “The Drake isn’t far from here,” he tells them. “Once I get over there, I can find my friends.” Once again, the carrot-shaped beings say nothing. Remus looks around and finds that there’s a large cardboard box in his way. “That’s gigantic!” He pushes on it. Nothing happens. He has the four red beings push on it as well, but to no avail. “Hmm,” Remus muses. “I suppose there’s just not enough of you!” He looks around and spots a flower with a red center. He looks down at the leafy creatures. “I wonder…” He picks one up and throws it at the flower. The center of the flower falls off and the creature Remus threw picks it up and carries it away. “I wonder where he’s going.” Remus throws the other three at surrounding flowers, humming. He follows them to the red bulb and watches them take the flower pieces to the bulb. There’s a sound Remus doesn’t know how to describe. Sparkly? The red bulb shoots out sprouts, the seeds hitting the ground and burrowing. The leaves on them look like the leaves of the beings around Remus.  
  
Remus wraps his hands around the stem of the plant and pulls. He falls backwards, but he pulled it out. Out of the ground comes another red being, staring down at Remus. Remus gets the urge to grab its pointy nose and pull it closer. That’s not very nice, he chides himself. They just want to help. Remus sits up. “That must be how you little guys grow, huh?” Remus rubs the head of the one he just plucked. “You’re adorable.” Remus pulls the others out of the ground, making sure not to fall over this time. He smiles. “Maybe there are enough of you now.”  
  
He leads them back to the box and guides them to push it. Still not enough. Remus glances around to see he missed a few flowers. “Oh! Seems as if I’ll need more of you.” He wanders towards the flowers, looking around. It’s all so green and leafy here. So many more plants than Koppai.  
  
The sand shifts under Remus’s feet and he falls backwards. Several huge roly-poly looking things push at him. Remus yelps, covering his face even though he has a spacesuit. Remus’s red companions don’t find this very nice and smack the giant roly-polies with their heads. The roly-polies fall over and the red beings pick them up to take back to the red bulb. More sprouts appear and Remus plucks them very carefully. Now, happily joined by 21 foliage friends, Remus marches forward. Is this what Roman felt like when he lead a squadron?  
  
Remus stops in front of the box and has his leafy pals charge the box. The group pushes the box, one staying at his side. Remus spots a yellow something in the dirt. “Is that a data file?” He picks it up. “Hmm…” Remus inserts the file into his KopPad. A message pops on screen.  
  
__**Pikminology #1  
** **_The Onion is like a nest for the Pikmin. It both gives birth to them and provides them with shelter._  
**   
“Cool!” Remus leans down and pats one of their heads. “So you guys are named Pikmin?” The Pikmin chirps. “Well, I don't think Roman wrote that data file. He doesn't write like that.” He purses his lips. “And I don't think you guys wrote it either. Is there other intelligent life here?” The Pikmin don't take offense to that, but they don't understand what he's saying.  
  
Remus walks forward, leading his gaggle of leafy friends onward. They enter a tunnel lit with pink mushrooms. “Everything here is so big!” He hums happily and comes to a stop. A sandy barrier sits in between him and the Drake. “Who put this here?” The Pikmin don't answer. Remus has them charge at the dirt wall and they crumble it to dust. “The Drake should be just around the corner. I hope it's okay!”  
  
He runs over to the Drake. “It looks okay.” Remus looks down at his KopPad. “There's nothing else alive around here…” His KopPad buzzes in his hands. Someone's calling him! Remus answers. “Hello?”  
  
_“Remus?”_  
  
“Virgil!”  
  
_“Oh good, you're alive.”_  
  
“Of course I am!” Remus beams. “It's gonna take more than a crash landing on an alien planet to defeat me!”  
  
Virgil snorts. _“Right. I've been trying to call Roman and D and they haven't responded.”_  
  
“Do you think they're okay?”  
  
Virgil pauses. _“Yeah,”_ he says. _"They're fine.”_  
  
“I'm sure they are too!” The slight wobble in Remus’s voice says otherwise.  
  
Virgil shivers. _“When I fell, I got trapped. It's cold and I’m hun-”_ The call disconnects.  
  
“Virgil?” Remus says. “Virgil?!” Nothing. Remus fiddles with his KopPad for a few minutes, trying to reconnect with Virgil. The Pikmin watch him, tipping their heads. He swears. “I wonder how far away he is. The tech should be working!” It can't stop working. Remus worked so hard to get here. If it stops working, he might go to jail for sabotaging the tech. He can't go back. It wasn't his fault.  
  
One of the Pikmin looks up at Remus and pats the side of his helmet. Remus smiles slightly. “Right! I can't lose hope! I'll find them! I'm glad Virgil seems okay, at least.” Remus stands up and squints at the sun. “I don't know how long the day is here and I don't want to deal with the nighttime animals.” He looks at the Pikmin. “Go home. Go on. Get out of here!” The Pikmin disappear back into the tunnel. Remus assumes they're returning to the Onion. Remus boards the Drake and starts the engine, leaving the surface and entering a low orbit. Out the cockpit window, Remus spies the Onion. “It followed me!”  
  
Remus looks at the supply room and grimaces. Their bottles of food have been smashed, leaving only three left. Remus holds a bottle, looking it over. His stomach growls at the thought of food but Remus feels sick. He has the food. No one else does. Why does he have the food? He could eat it all! Remus places the jar of food back on the shelf and tidies the room, ignoring the sounds of his stomach. “I'll wait until I find Virgil,” Remus says aloud. “And it can be a celebration.” His stomach doesn't like that idea and growls louder. Remus wraps his arms around himself. “Shut up.”  
  
Remus checks the engine room and goes on alert. The cosmic-drive key is missing! They can't leave PNF-404 without it! He made sure he fixed everything before they left and checked on the engine a week ago! What could have happened?! Remus takes a deep breath. “It's okay, I'll find it.” Remus returns to the main area and writes the day's log. He's never been the one to do this before. He hopes he did it well. He mentions that he's going to find Virgil in the morning and the cosmic-drive key is missing. The rest is a blur.  
  
Remus goes to his room and gets in bed, staring at the empty bed that belongs to his brother.  
  
He doesn't sleep very well.


End file.
